


Sunrise

by coolbyrne



Series: Cherry Wood and Whiskey [1]
Category: NCIS
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-07
Updated: 2019-09-07
Packaged: 2020-10-11 13:17:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,680
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20546795
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/coolbyrne/pseuds/coolbyrne
Summary: Gibbs breaks his hand and discovers a trip is just what the doctor ordered. Pre-married Slibbs; prologue to "Three Months Later".





	Sunrise

**Author's Note:**

> For an anon on tumblr who wanted to know why Gibbs had a cast and why they were in Mexico in "Three Months Later".
> 
> I'm afraid this probably isn't exactly what you were looking for- I often think my stories don't focus on the things people want more detail about*. I suspect anon wanted to know about the case and the trip itself, but to me, those weren't as important as how Gibbs and Jack changed because of them.
> 
> (*I just ended TWO sentences with prepositions!)

He'd tell her he zigged when he should've zagged. (Fortunately, he got his hand up in time to take the brunt of the baseball bat.) He definitely wouldn't tell her he went into the room, 20 feet ahead of the SWAT team. No. He definitely wouldn't tell her tha-

"You went into the room ahead of the SWAT team," were the first words out of her mouth when she entered the hospital room. His head tilt was meant to portray confusion, but she was having none of it. "SWAT team had body cameras on. I see you waaaay down the hallway, all by yourself, swaggering into the dark room-"

"Wasn’t 'swaggering'," he protested.

She settled herself between his knees as he sat on the edge of the bed. "You saved that little girl," she said with pride in her voice. "And I'm never going to tell you not to do your job. But could you…" Her voice trailed off and she looked down at his chest covered in the red hoodie she brought to replace the shirt they'd cut off him. "I don't know. Maybe I don't have the right-"

He brought his hands to her face, forgetting one of them was in a cast, and he frowned at the obstacle. “You got every right.”

He knew where her uncertainty stemmed; while it had been 6 months since she’d moved in, neither had said The Word, neither had defined what they had. Were they lovers? His mind snorted at the word. And he was way too old to call her ‘girlfriend’. Lifting her chin to catch her gaze, he looked into eyes that he came to feel were home. Like a sunrise.

“What did you say?”

He didn’t realize he had whispered the word, and when he tried to shrug it off, she shook her head. “No. You said something. You said, ‘Like a sunrise’.”

Moving in was action, and he was all about action. If he did it, he meant it. But he knew words were important too, and that’s where he had always tripped himself up in relationships. Said the wrong words, didn’t say the right ones. Was he too old to change, or could you really teach an old dog new tricks?

“You’re the first thing I wanna see in the mornin’,” he said, whispering it between their lips. “The promise of another day.”

She pulled back slightly, staring at him for an eternity. “Wow,” she said at last. “You do know how to flatter a girl. ‘Like a sunrise’.” 

She shook her head as if she couldn’t quite believe those words came from his mouth, so he reassured her it was really him.

“That, and you give me mornin’ wood.”

“Oh. My. God.” She slapped him square in the chest. “I can’t believe you said that!”

His face was one of pure innocence. “Most women would consider that a compliment.”

She lifted her chin and proclaimed, “I am not most women.”

Using her shirt to tug her closer, he discarded the playfulness and said, “No. No you are not.”

“God,” she said, her mouth hovering over his. “How do you go from impish shit to the most jumpable man in 3 seconds?”

“S’a gift,” he shrugged before meeting her lips the rest of the way. 

His plaster-encased fingers hooked into a belt loop, holding her tight, while his left hand roamed freely through her hair until it got a fistful. She moaned at the shift from loving to lusting and she encouraged him to explore her neck at will by tilting her head back. 

"I'll wait for the SWAT team from now on." 

The words were left under her ear, a whisper and a promise.

She made just enough space between them to say, "Thank you," then left a chaste kiss on his nose. "We should go before they serve dinner. You eat, you stay."

Reminded of the hospital policy, he was off the bed and on his feet before she had the chance to grin. 

…..

She rolled off him, breathless and satiated. With her eyes closed and a cat who got the cream smirk on her face, she said, “You do more with one hand than most men do with two.”

Splayed out on his back, his position mirrored hers. Wiping the sheen from his forehead with his good hand, he grinned. “All things considered, I think you did most of the work on this one.”

Her left hand angled to swat at his chest but ended up lazily stroking it with her knuckles instead.

“Mmmm,” she simply murmured. "Let's order in. I'm too rubber to cook and you've only got 1 good arm." She turned into his side, mindful of the cast. "One _very_ good arm," she clarified, teasing a finger down his sternum. 

He pushed his head into the pillow and laughed. Unfortunately, the promising encore was interrupted by his phone. She groaned but didn’t move. His arm stretched out for the offending device. 

“Yeah?” There was a silent gap. “I’m good, Leon.” He swatted away her roaming hand, though couldn’t do much about her mouth that took its place. His abdomen twitched under her lips when she dropped a kiss above his navel. His right hand, limited in its motion, could only try to grab at her hair. She rested her chin where her lips had just been and grinned up at him. “Just waitin’ for Jack to make me dinner.” He winced at the pinch she gave him on his hip. The silent gap went longer. “Leon-” Gibbs clenched his jaw. “Yep.” Silence. “Yep.” He handed Jack the phone. “Your turn.”

She slid off the bed, just out of his reach, anticipating his retaliatory teasing. Winking at nipping his ploy in the bud, she grabbed his shirt off the floor and slipped it over her shoulders. “Hey, Leon.” 

While there was nothing quite like seeing her in all her naked beauty, there was something about seeing her in his shirt, a shirt that did just enough to cover all the enticing bits. He looked up at her mischievous grin and corrected his thought- it was all damn enticing. 

“Ten days?” she asked, and he knew she was getting a similar version of the conversation he got from Leon. “No problem. I’m sure I’ve seen some rope in the basement.” Pause. “Glad you find that funny.” Another pause. “I’m a…” The definition of what she was and what they were hung in the air, undefined. She skipped over finding the word and went for what she wasn’t. “I’m not a miracle worker.” Based on her eye roll and her sigh, her counter arguments were all for naught. “Right. See you in 10 days.” The snap of the phone momentarily distracted her. “I forgot how satisfying that was,” she said, opening the phone and snapping it shut again.

“Ten day leave, huh?”

She tossed the phone, hitting him square in the stomach. ‘Ten days to stop you from sneaking back to work, though Leon didn’t quite phrase it that way.”

Gibbs grunted, knowing exactly what she meant. “Told me if I came in, he’d schedule the annual audit early.”

Curling her legs under her, she sat against his thigh, facing him. “So what are you going to do and how hard am I going to have to work to keep you in line, Cowboy?”

He may have looked like he was contemplating the question, but really, he was enjoying how her hand absently curled around his knee, her thumb stroking along the scar. He wondered if she was aware just how much she touched him, how often she seemed to need to be near him. Beside him. On top of him. He grinned at the memory. 

“Come to Mexico with me.”

Her thumb stopped mid-caress. “Pardon?”

Hearing the words come out of his mouth only made him more assured. “Mexico. A little bird might’ve told me you dreamed about a shack and surfin’.”

“You mean a little Ducky.”

Gibbs shrugged. 

At his non-response, she said, "You're serious."

The question made him realize the answer. "Yeah. Yeah, I am."

Stretching as far forward as she could, her lips reached his chin and the late day stubble bristled under her kiss. “You’re also amazing. But how are we going to keep it from the rest of the team? It’s going to look pretty obvious something’s up when we both go to Mexico.”

“Gonna be pretty obvious when both of us take the same time off.”

“Mmmm,” she agreed against his chin. They had told Leon for HR purposes, but had yet to tell anyone else, enjoying the newness of everything. Still, she knew the secrecy couldn’t last. "You really think they don't know?"

"You really think they'd leave us the hell alone if they did?" Her laughter vibrated against his jaw. "Bishop'll figure it out first, but she'll keep quiet if I tell her to."

"She _is_ her father's favourite," Jack teased, moving up the bed. "So we're really going to Mexico? Just like that?"

"Just like that," he replied.

He anticipated the kiss to follow, and she didn't disappoint. Her hand picked up the trail it had left off before Leon had called, but this time, the interruption was a noise of a different kind. His stomach rumbled under her palm. If there was any silver lining to the intrusion, it was how it brought out her laugh again. God, he loved that. 

_God, he loved her._

He was mulling that revelation over in his head when she said, "Think that's our cue to order in." His small frown made her wrinkle her nose in amusement. "And while we wait, we'll have a shower."

"'We'?"

She shrugged nonchalantly while tiptoeing her fingertips across his pelvis. "I'll have to show you how to shower with a cast, won't I?" She asked the question as if there were no sultry ulterior motives in the question.

For the 2nd time that day, his feet hit the floor before her laugh had time to fill the room.

…..

-end


End file.
